War is threatening in Europe, Ukraine is begging Germany for weapons.

The federal government is trying to mediate, the Green Foreign Minister Baerbock was in Kiev for the second time in a very short time.

And the green party?

Are people talking about the right to self-determination and the responsibility for peace?

No, the green party is silent - apart from assurances that Baerbock is right.

At the most recent party congress, the topic played practically no role.

A few Greens tried to the last to at least discuss the delivery of defensive weapons.

But the party leadership did not want that, they collected the application without there being any protest.

In addition to a few empty phrases in the speeches, the topic came up once: a few grassroots Greens demanded that the concerns of the Russians should also be taken seriously.

Dancing til past midnight

The Greens, who claim that the dispute is part of their DNA, have forgotten how to debate the tough issues.

The party seems anesthetized.

Instead of analyzing the botched election campaign, the Greens indulge in self-praise.

They invoke cohesion, reassure each other that they are doing the right thing and that their critics only wanted to harm them.

The party leadership promised several times that they would dance until after midnight again at the next party conference.

Last week's digital event also featured confetti, tears of joy and quotes from pop songs.

The Greens have been back in government for sixteen years, and the tasks are gigantic.

But what the party is currently doing is trivializing politics.

Tactically, the idea of ​​avoiding arguments on the open stage is correct.

Voters like unity.

The Greens have found that a harmonious appearance is quickly reflected in polls and elections.

Baerbock and Habeck, who appeared so relaxed on the outside, led a tough regiment on the inside.

They didn't like it when someone stepped out of line in public.

The Greens found discipline surprisingly quickly.

All questions, including the chancellor candidacy, were quietly clarified in the back room, and no one objected.

If you remind the Greens that even the parliamentary group meetings were once public, they wave you away with a smile.

The heated debates of that time have reached the level of knitting needles: green folklore.

The party has grown up, according to leading Greens.

This may apply to the external presentation.

In terms of content, however, the party clings to old beliefs.

When it comes to arms deliveries to Ukraine, one can get the impression that there were never any tough struggles over the direction of the red-green government.

At the time, Greens questioned the convenient formula of the pacifist party.

They came to the conclusion that the German past should no longer be used as an excuse to stay out of international conflicts.

Now a generation is at the helm that was still going to school or even kindergarten at the time of these debates.

The party's collective memory is full of holes.

For many of the younger Greens, the difficult questions are again quite simple, and the answers do not admit of contradiction.

The story of a naïve pacifism among Greens is booming again.

And the reference to German history is enough for the party as an argument not to deliver weapons to Kiev.

Habeck wants more realism

Robert Habeck has tried time and again to expect the Greens to face reality.

This includes, for example, that the Ukrainians were one of the peoples of the Soviet Union who suffered the most from Hitler's war of annihilation.

That Ukraine not only defends its own security, but also the security of Europe.

And that words of solidarity sound like mockery if they are not followed by action.

Habeck is one of the most influential Greens, but the resistance was too great, he had no chance.

The party has walled itself in its own truth.

In this state, the Greens are not an attractive proposition for voters outside of their core clientele.

Seen in this way, participation in government is an opportunity for the Greens.

Responsibility is a crash course in reality studies, there is no more room for green self-reflection.

Habeck and Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann wanted to prepare the Greens for the fact that this would not be possible without unreasonable demands on the green soul.

Now the confrontation with reality could come as a shock to the party.

Should Russia invade Ukraine, the West, including the Greens, will have to show their colors.